On the nature of UMTS circuit-switched capacity figures obtained through Monte Carlo system-level simulations

Sophisticated dimensioning exercises for CDMA-based systems (such as UMTS) involve Monte Carlo-based system-level simulations. In the absence of any hardware limitations, it is common practice to further apply Erlang B to the capacity numbers obtained through such simulations. While the application of Erlang B to TDMA/FDMA-based systems is acceptable, similar practice for UMTS will result in highly pessimistic capacity numbers under certain conditions. This paper proposes a methodology that can be incorporated in Monte Carlo-based UMTS system-level simulators to derive directly the supported traffic intensity. Using such a method, simulation results are presented supporting the Erlang nature of the DL/UL capacity numbers generated by a UMTS Monte Carlo-based system-level simulator.